The UN General Assembly during its 69th session, on 22-23 September this year, will convene a high-level plenary meeting - the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples – to review the implementation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) since its adoption in 2007, and to identify outstanding issues and actions pertaining to indigenous peoples and development.

This document, presents guidelines for working with indigenous women, which were collectively created from experiences in Canada, Mexico, Colombia and Argentina. We hope that our efforts will contribute to the building of a detailed methodology to deal with discrimination against Indigenous Women both when bringing cases to justice and when conducting research.

Indigenous and human rights organisations from across the Americas are working together to develop a specific methodology for investigating, documenting and fighting indigenous women's cases through the justice system. The organisations involved include ONIC, the National Indigenous Organisation of Colombia; COAJ, the Board of Indigenous Organisations of Jujuy (Argentina); SER, Mixe People's Services (Mexico); QNW, Quebec Native Women (Canada); and AJDH, Lawyers for Justice and Human Rights (Mexico). This work is being carried out within the framework of a project called Ethnic and gender-based discrimination in the Americas: the case of indigenous women.

"GENEVA (07 August 2013) –States need to do more to honour and strengthen their treaties with indigenous peoples, no matter how long ago they were signed, UN human rights chief Navi Pillay has said in a statement to mark International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples on 9 August.

“Even when signed or otherwise agreed more than a century ago, many treaties remain the cornerstone for the protection of the identity, land and customs of indigenous peoples, determining the relationship they have with the State. They are thus of major significance to human rights today,” she said.

The concept note for pilot Whakatane Assessment has been finalized. You can download it here

As mentioned in Forest Peoples Programme’s February E-Newsletter, a meeting was held at the IUCN CEESP Sharing Power conference in Whakatane, New Zealand, January 2011, between indigenous representatives, the chairs of three IUCN commissions (CEESP, WCPA and SSC) and sub-commissions (TILCEPA and TGER), key staff of the IUCN secretariat (the Director of the Environment and Development Programme and the Senior Adviser on Social Policy), and other staff from IUCN, Conservation International and Forest Peoples Programme.

The main outcome of the meeting and subsequent follow-up discussions was an agreement to implement a series of measures to review the implementation of resolutions related to indigenous peoples adopted at the 4th World Conservation Congress (WCC4) in 2008 and to advance their implementation should there be a gap.